The white toilet cube designed by famed Japanese graphic designer and creative director Kashiwa Sato opened its doors in July 2021. It is located at the busy, bustling west exit of Tokyo’s Ebisu Station. In his design, Sato focused on creating a safe, clean toilet facility that looks bright, delicate and harmonious. Downlights illuminate the white aluminium slats at dusk and in the evening, making the cube look like a floating streetlight. Sato designed the five toilets to be unisex and fully accessible. Rather than choosing the toilet based on gender, each person should decide based on their needs and the corresponding fixtures in place. The stalls feature WASHLET (shower toilets), helpful folding seats and hygienic, sensor-based faucets. Kashiwa Sato also designed the pictograms found on all “THE TOKYO TOILET” Project.　

The topic of diversity plays an important role in the toilet designed by Pritzker Award winner Toyo Ito – there is a section of the building designed “for everyone” in addition to the conventional men’s and women’s areas. Born in 1941, the world-famous architect designed public toilet at the edge of the city’s Yoyogi Hachimann forest that look like three mushrooms at first glance. This imagery symbolises the over 800-year-old forest. The three buildings create a feeling of openness, helping every guest feel safe. At night, the mushroom cap-like roofs of the buildings reflect the light from the interior, making them look like little lanterns. The exterior walls of the “three mushrooms” were covered with custom self-cleaning mosaic tiles, the colour creating a gradient effect from earthy dark brown at the bottom to a lighter shade at the top. The very spacious toilets are designed to be especially accessible to everyone, even the elderly and small children. Toyo Ito’s project also features WASHLET.

The green Nabeshima Shoto Park is located just a few minutes’ walk from Shinsen train station, surrounded by a quiet residential community and galleries. The five toilets designed by famed architect Kengo Kuma are found at the edge of the park. All different heights and slightly offset to each other, allowing people to wander through them as if in a little forest. This image is further enhanced by the rustic pieces of cedar wood that cover the facade. The surprising interior features raw timber. Like many other toilets in “THE TOKYO TOILET” Project, Kengo Kuma decided to dedicate spaces to different needs – child-friendly, fully accessible, for elderly people – rather than conventional gender assignments. This is yet another innovative toilet facility that symbolises our age of diversity. This toilet is especially suited for children. It has a special toilet set for small children, including a urinal and washbasin positioned at the right height for them to use comfortably.

The brilliant white semi-sphere landed at Nanago Dori Park and Seventh Street. The shell structure of the sphere is slightly elevated from the ground, which makes it look like it is floating in air. Kazoo Sato, an award-winning interdisciplinary creative genius, developed a voice control mechanism for the toilet that allows people to open the door, use WASHLET and the faucet with voice commands. The “Hi Toilet” guests don’t need to touch anything – it’s difficult to imagine how a public toilet could be more hygienic. In the unlikely case that something should break, people can use all of the elements manually. The photocatalytic varnish on the semi-sphere breaks down dirt with the light from the sun, keeping it bright and white. The structure was also so designed to pull in fresh air at the base and circulate it along the dome, ensuring efficient ventilation. The pure white semi-sphere opened in August 2021 and has already become a neighbourhood landmark.

An overview of all toilets – like the ones constructed by Tadao Ando and Shigeru Ban in 2020 – is available here: https://tokyotoilet.jp/en/
All 17 “THE TOKYO TOILET” Projects are scheduled for completion by the end of 2022.

Inquiries:
Product related information: TOTO
THE TOKYO TOILET Project information: The Nippon Foundation https://tokyotoilet.jp/en/

Düsseldorf, February 2022
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TOTO, one of the world’s leading sanitary ware companies, has an unwavering focus on people and their well-being. Established in Kitakyushu, Japan in 1917, TOTO has been developing, producing and marketing its comprehensive high-end bathroom concepts for the European market since 2009. The company aims to create a new attitude towards life through regeneration, comfort and hygiene, integrating technologies into their product designs in a smart, nearly invisible way. Japan’s leading manufacturer in the sector, TOTO offers a comprehensive range of products including ceramic sanitary ware, faucets and accessories. The company can now look back on over 40 years of developing and manufacturing WASHLET and has sold over 60 million units worldwide to date. TOTO supports the development of a fully emission-free society and is very committed to sustainability: By joining the RE100 initiative, TOTO Group will convert all of its facilities to power from sustainable energy sources by the year 2040. The company also received certification from the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBT) to reduce greenhouse gases in line with the Paris Agreement, and to systematically cut CO₂ emissions further on this basis. TOTO employs 36,000 people world-wide.

Read more about TOTO online: eu.toto.com